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tv   Our World With Black Enterprise  CW  August 23, 2009 6:30am-7:00am EDT

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this week on our world with black enterprise, part two of enough is enough. >> in my community i hear kids using the "n" word like it's brother, like it's son. i talk to them, why are you
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using that. >> if i can just get them to start reading and then stay in school, then graduate from school, then go to college, then save money and then buy a house. but you have to start somewhere. >> if you're not correcting the problem, then you are wasting your time and your life, because there's no end, and what are we going to say about you? if you're not satisfied with your answer, you ought to leave here and go to work. captions made possible by the u.s. department of education and central city productions, inc. this week we continue with part two of our special town hall edition of our world with black sbrer prize. "our world" held a town hall meeting at the entrepreneur's
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conference in charlotte, north carolina. the panel was diverse and wide-ranging. multi media journalist and cnn tv 1 contributor roland martin, social comment stater for cbs morning news and msnbc, nancy giles, president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. ceo of bring the noise east link, chuck dee, and executive director of bet kovm kim osario debated the idea of social challenges that have hindered many african-americans for years. >> enough is enough. this discussion tonight isn't going to be about the role of art in society or free speech or whether the "n" word is acceptable or what hip-hop can teach us. that ship has sailed. the damage has been done. the issue before us is what are we going to do about it?
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>> if i might, i've got a question for the audience. if you'll indulge me and please follow along. how many of you by a show of hands feel like you've seen enough of what mr. graves has talked about? show your hands, please. how many of you believe enough is enough? if, in fact, you dorks stand on your feet for me one time. give some love to what he just said please. [ applause ] >> we are not going to pay to be insumted. they don't have to care. the fact that we care -- they're not doing this on their money. they're doing it on our money. you're not going to call me the "n" word and i'm going to pay for it. >> i want to hear from the head of warner. i want to hear from the head of universe al, all down the line. in every debate about music, they have never seen -- from the tobacco movie "the insider" when all the ceos stood and raised
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their hands, have that with the record labels. then you see who it is. you will see none of the ceos were black. >> when i was watching the oscars and the best song went to "it's hard out here for a pimp, i had a problem with that, okay? >> i'm voting for barack obama for all the wright and spell it with a w, and all the wrong reasons. why? the right reasons, think think he can do a job. all the wrong reasons? because he's black, yeah. >> my question to you is, as someone who is intimately involved in bet.com and when you take a look at the interests of young black america based on where they go on your website, what does that tell you, frankly? >> let me explain something to you. bet.com serves the bet audience. >> which is a very young audience. >> right. more than that, i think the demo
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extends past just the viewership. >> what is the demo, so we're clear? >> i don't speak to the network and that sort of thing. >> 12 plus. >> i just wanted to know. >> i think it's real funny -- >> go ahead. >> i'm not putting you in the position. >> yes, you are. i can't be the spokesperson for that. you got the wong person sitting here. >> hold on, hold on, hold on. >> roland, hard on. >> here is part two. >> i still say what we are doing here and what we have continued to do is the same -- everything we've said here, we all agree -- wait a minute, chuck -- we all agree, we all clap on. it seems as though we're stuck in the starting blocks to figure out how do collectively move an entire group of people is what we want to happen. reverend, you know better than most, that has never happened in the history --
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>> which is what chuck tried to tell you. first of all, if you think that you're going to get everybody in this audience, let alone watching, that has never happened. everybody wasn't in the 1i68 rights movement. most folks who tell you they marched with dr. king is lying. we did not have -- we didn't have a million man march till '95. dr. king never had more than 250,000. you neat a concerted group like he says, that will hit where it strategically will huturn it around. >> you raise a salient point in just the utterance of the million man march which simply became the million man picnic because we were there, had a great feeling that day and very little happened. >> who said there wasn't forward movement? just like these atrocities against us that happen overnight, the forward movement in changing the time happens like the grain of sands in time. so there has been forward movement. it's sticking inside people's
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minds. if you led the media say that fair can't is this and that and we allow that to happen and don't talk about how somebody was energized -- >> chuck, it's the same thing i've been talking about. yes, we were energized, we were energized that day, for a week, for a month. and a grain of sand, but if you only plop a grain of sand -- >> here is a clear-cut solution that you can walk out of this room with. how many people sitting here in a fraternity? last five years, fisk university, graduation rate, 28% black men. that was the average. for those of you in the fraternity, you will not have members in 20 years. i want to ask black frats, when are you going to collectively as black greeks say we are going to take it upon ourselves to make sure these young men ged et cade kaetd and say you won't have
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members. if i can get them to start reading and then stay in school, then graduate from school, then go to college, then save money, then buy a house. but you have to start somewhere. so i don't care what it is. i don't care -- >> one person can make a difference, one person. >> i'm speaking to infrastructure right now, people who are members who are dues paying, it's one way of doing it. jesus said the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. you have to start in your own space. don't call reverend sharpton, don't call reverend jackson, you say i am going to make it my mission to get young black men educated through the infrastructure i'm already paying dues to. >> when we return -- >> we better also put pressure on understanding how technology works. like prince said, if you don't be on top of technology, it will be on of you. ♪
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mommie's home! mommie! mommie! i played baseball... so sorry i'm late, miss sykes. oh, that's ok, honey. what's for dinner, mom? are you listening? yes. these are for you. alright! ( laughing ) yes! ( excited shouting ) tell me about your day. in a minute, mom! oh! i'll be right here when you're ready. when i've had one of those days... i make it a happy meal night. ♪ ba da ba ba ba
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why have we not seen a more collective effort of movement from black america? >> i think, first of all, because when we rely on mainstream media to define the agenda, the only time you will
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see reverend sharpton is when they're ticked off at a rally. so people within the room got to ask the question, am i buying black newspapers, black radio? am i buying black magazines? am i getting our story? last week my niece anastasia, we were watching television, bill widthers singing "ain't no sunshine when she's gone". when we got in the car i put it on, anna, eight, says, can you put that o8my ipod. the point i'm making there is, i grew up with a daddy who played music while i was in the room. what he played got into my system. so, therefore, i'm more understanding of the spinners than i am with anybody in hip-hop. so you as parents in the room, going back to solution, you've got to ask yourself, when do i listen to music with my children? am i listening in the car? am i doing it there? am i doing it elsewhere?
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you start saying, wait a minute, maybe they listen to what they listen to because i'm not listening with them, so i'm not having an impact on what they are hearing. that could also be part of the problem. >> roland is making all the points i want to be making. >> sorry. >> that's all right. i want to jump in here as a female. >> doesn't that speak to what kim was suggesting and what i asked the audience at the outset? i will at times make our kids pull the ipods out and listen to my music just because -- where does it begin? >> it comes back to not only personal accountability, but that each of us can have a voice to help these young people. you don't even have to be in a sorority or fraternity. there's a program i work with. reverend al's got programs. big sisters, big brothers. forget about that. you see -- in my community i hear kids using the "n" word like it's brother, like it's son. i stop and talk to them. why are you using that? do you know that that word has a
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history of violence and degradation behind it? some of them know. some of them don't know. you get in conversations. each person -- i mean i don't agree with hillary clinton on a lot of things and i don't even know whether she made up the "it takes a village." >> not at all. she got that the same place she had the military attack -- >> exactly. >> sniper fire. dodging. but you know what? it does take a village. everybody in the room. each person, you can mentor with kids, you can talk to them. there are kids that i work with in new york city, black and puerto rican who come from homes with only one parent, maybe welfare, maybe schools that ar't so great. we get to talk. i bring them to work with me. they get to see other people of color acting differently, and it starts getting their minds awake again. >> real quick for me. >> we better stop looking at business with a model of more
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always means better. so when it comes down to programming, they take these surveys. nobody even understands where these surveys come from. they take it, the surveys influences the programming. and i think we have to really look into this and say programming, if it's on tv, you're going to have a gigantic cluster of people watching. this isn't the mtv bet generation. it's the my space, facebook, youtube picture phone generation. they deal with apparatus more than they deal with human beings. the more we move ahead, human beings are dealing less with each other face to face -- i don't care how old they are -- dealing with cell phones, running into each other in the maul and they're still on the phone. we better also put pressure on understanding how technology works. because -- like prince said, if you don't be on top of technology, it will be on top of
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you. >> when we return -- >> the hardest job of a black preacher is to preach the funeral of an irrelevant negro. people laying their dead, their families sitting there. you've got to introducing the all new chevy equinox. with an epa estimated 32 miles per gallon. and up to 600 miles between fill ups. it's the most fuel efficient crossover on the highway. better than honda cr-v, toyota rav4 and even the ford escape hybrid. the all new chevy equinox.
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female announcer: from jennifer, while supplies last, this luxurious microfiber sofa and chair, just $399. our most dramatic offer ever: both pieces, $399, from jennifer. hello. my name is lanice gibson. my question is to you, nancy.
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i'm here from san francisco with my 13-year-old son. why? because i know he had gifting. my responsibility is in my home. i don't worry about tv-1 and what bet is doing and what my blog says. my son does his homework first. i choose his friends. i want to know what is our responsibility as a community? what are we doing on the ground zero? >> what's being set up here, it's very well-meaning, but it can be a little abstract. the way you're raising your child and that people are here listening to you gives the example of how you're raising your child. if it gives people ideas and makes them think, you know what, maybe i've been a little bit of a slacker. maybe instead of going out one night with my girlfriends, i need to go to a parent-teacher meeting or maybe it means i have to stay up later if i'm by myself to make sure my kid's homework gets done. maybe it means we as women need to take a look at some of the
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guys we date and if they're not holding up their end, we've got to get better men and we've got to say, maybe we have to make sure in the world we live in that schools teach kids sex education. >> my question is to chuck dee. this is a privileged group of folks that can say these kids with their pants hanging down, how do we reach those folks to make a difference and get them here to become entrepreneurs and be in mr. graves' publication and live that next legacy. >> our thing is to try to have these -- i don't know. i call them attack squads. you need attack squads to be out there lobbying for education, lobbying for fair programming, lobbying for people to do the right thing, lobbying for kids with intelligence, that aren't afraid to speak their intelligence. you've got to fight for your minds. minds are the real estate of the
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millennium. this is the only real estate that's left. they feel that not only have people sold their minds, they done gave them away. >> closing thoughts. we'll start with roland. >> if you start with your house, then take it to your block, then take it to your neighborhood, then to your city, your nation, that's how any movement is built. when you leave here you must make the decision today, what am i going to do when i leave here? when you come back next year, report on to us what you did, because if you sat here and clapped and then you go home the same way you came, you wasted our damn time. >> it's easy to get up here and talk, and we all say, oh, yes, this is great and everybody collapse. but you've got to take action. you've got to take action. >> i would say that "we" is more important than "i," it protects
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us. we're a katrina away in a place poor of geography where white folks were surprised there were so many black people in new orleans which showed they didn't know geography or history. we can't follow behind that. >> even when it does look hopeless, you can make progress if all of us are committed. mendel la stated 27 years. imagine somebody telling him on the 25th year, you've been here a quarter of a century. and if he had left and sold out, he was two years away from walking from prison to president. you can't give up just because it looks like it takes too long. i can tell you as a minister, i say it all the time, the hardest job of a black preacher is to preach the funeral or an irrelevant negro. you've got to make it up. people laying there dead, their family sitting there and you've
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got to hallucinate a life for them they never lived. you need to ask yourself that when your life is over, what can they say about me? and if you are not helping your child or some child -- if you're not correcting the problem, then you are wasting your time and your life. because it's going to end, and what are we going to say about you? if you're not satisfied with your answer, you ought to leave here and go to work. >> chuck, you raised katrina, and we talked about government and white folks, but i i always said poverty was not ushered in with katrina for black folks in new orleans. we walked all the way by that poverty and never, ever changed it. we have to start doing. you mentioned mendel la two years away, but what we had was tutu and many others continuing that fight while he sat in there those 27 years.
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and so we have to often -- i tell leaderships, turn the mirror around and ask folks, what are you doing? so when we talk about the 20 years, the reality is, in spite of our blow-up, exactly what kim said. and a that is, i'm doing for mine, whether it's your blood or your neighbor's kid, your uncle's kid or you don't -- as nancy suggested -- necessarily have to have any connection other than wanting to better the race and stop all of this. so we will ask you, and i think i can speak for the graves, to please walk away from tonight and ask yourself what can i as an individual do to commit myself to assisting all of us as a collective to change? >> we'll be right back. aoat.
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where did my goat go? well, it went to a family who really needed it.
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that does it for this edition of our world with black enterprise. please logon to our website at blackenterprise.com and give us your comments on the show. as always, thanks for making "our world" your world.

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